The Coming of Conan is a collection of eight fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

 short stories written by Robert E. Howard

Robert E. Howard

Robert Ervin Howard was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. Best known for his character Conan the Barbarian, he is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre....

 featuring his seminal sword and sorcery

Sword and sorcery

Sword and sorcery is a sub-genre of fantasy and historical fantasy, generally characterized by sword-wielding heroes engaged in exciting and violent conflicts. An element of romance is often present, as is an element of magic and the supernatural...

 heroes Kull and Conan the Barbarian

Conan the Barbarian

Conan the Barbarian is a fictional sword and sorcery hero that originated in pulp fiction magazines and has since been adapted to books, comics, several films , television programs, video games, roleplaying games and other media...

, together with the first part of his pseudo-history of the "Hyborian Age" in which the Conan tales were set. It was first published in hardcover in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 by Gnome Press

Gnome Press

Gnome Press was an American small-press publishing company primarily known for publishing many science fiction classics.The company was founded in 1948 by Martin Greenberg and David A. Kyle. Many of Gnome's titles were reprinted in England by Boardman Books...

 in 1953 and by Boardman Books

Boardman Books

Founded by Thomas Volney Boardman in the 1930s, T.V. Boardman, Ltd. , was but one of many London publishing houses turning out both paperback and hardcover books, pulp magazines, and comics. Boardman Books is best known for publishing the long-running monthly series of hardcover Bloodhound...

 in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 in 1954. The stories originally appeared in the 1930s in the fantasy magazine Weird Tales

Weird Tales

Weird Tales is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine first published in March 1923. It ceased its original run in September 1954, after 279 issues, but has since been revived. The magazine was set up in Chicago by J. C. Henneberger, an ex-journalist with a taste for the macabre....

. The collection never saw publication in paperback; instead, its component stories were split up and distributed among other "Kull" and "Conan" collections.

Contents:

• "Introduction" (L. Sprague de Camp
  L. Sprague de Camp
  Lyon Sprague de Camp was an American author of science fiction and fantasy books, non-fiction and biography. In a writing career spanning 60 years, he wrote over 100 books, including novels and notable works of non-fiction, including biographies of other important fantasy authors...
  
  )
  • March 10, 1936 letter from Robert E. Howard to P. Schuyler Miller
    P. Schuyler Miller
    Peter Schuyler Miller was an American science fiction writer and critic.-Life:Miller was raised in New York's Mohawk Valley, which led to a life-long interest in the Iroquois Indians. He pursued this as an amateur archaeologist and a member of the New York State Archaeological Association.He...
    
    
  • Undated letter from H. P. Lovecraft
    H. P. Lovecraft
    Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
    
     to Donald A. Wollheim
    Donald A. Wollheim
    Donald Allen Wollheim was an American science fiction ' editor, publisher, writer, and fan. As an author, he published under his own name as well as under pseudonyms, including David Grinnell....
    
     on "The Hyborian Age"
• "The Hyborian Age, Part 1
  The Hyborian Age
  The Hyborian Age is an essay by Robert E. Howard pertaining to the Hyborian Age, the fictional setting of his stories about Conan the Cimmerian. It was written in the 1930s but not published during Howard's lifetime...
  
  "
• "The Shadow Kingdom
  The Shadow Kingdom
  "The Shadow Kingdom" by Robert E. Howard is the first of Howard's Kull stories, set in his fictional Thurian Age. It was first published in the pulp magazine Weird Tales in August 1929....
  
  " (Kull)
• "The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune
  The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune
  "The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune" is one of the original short stories about Kull of Atlantis, written by American author Robert E. Howard and first published in Weird Tales magazine circa 1929. It is one of only three Kull stories to be published in Howard's lifetime...
  
  " (Kull)
• "The King and the Oak" (Kull)
• "The Tower of the Elephant
  The Tower of the Elephant
  "The Tower of the Elephant" is one of the original short stories starring the fictional sword and sorcery hero Conan the Cimmerian, written by American author Robert E. Howard. It is set in the pseudo-historical Hyborian Age and concerns Conan infiltrating a perilous tower in order to steal a...
  
  "
• "The God in the Bowl
  The God in the Bowl
  "The God in the Bowl" is one of the original short stories featuring the sword and sorcery hero Conan the Cimmerian, written by American author Robert E. Howard but not published during his lifetime. It is set in the pseudo-historical Hyborian Age and concerns Conan robbing a temple museum only to...
  
  "
• "Rogues in the House
  Rogues in the House
  "Rogues in the House" is one of the original short stories starring the fictional sword and sorcery hero Conan the Cimmerian, written by American author Robert E. Howard and first published in Weird Tales magazine circa January 1934...
  
  "
• "The Frost-Giant's Daughter
  The Frost Giant's Daughter
  "The Frost-Giant's Daughter" is one of the original short stories about Conan the Cimmerian, written by American author Robert E. Howard, but not published in his lifetime....
  
  "
• "Queen of the Black Coast
  Queen of the Black Coast
  "Queen of the Black Coast" is one of the original short stories about Conan the Cimmerian, written by American author Robert E. Howard and first published in Weird Tales magazine circa May 1934...
  
  "

Chronologically, the short stories collected as The Coming of Conan are the earliest in Gnome's Conan series; the stories collected as Conan the Barbarian

Conan the Barbarian (collection)

Conan the Barbarian is a collection of five fantasy short stories written by Robert E. Howard featuring his seminal sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian, first published in hardcover by Gnome Press in 1954. The stories originally appeared in the 1930s in the fantasy magazine Weird Tales...

follow.

Reception

New York Times reviewer Villiers Gerson praised the stories as "unusual adult fairy tale[s] [with] a verve and dash seldom found in such thud=and-blunder stories." P. Schuyler Miller

P. Schuyler Miller

Peter Schuyler Miller was an American science fiction writer and critic.-Life:Miller was raised in New York's Mohawk Valley, which led to a life-long interest in the Iroquois Indians. He pursued this as an amateur archaeologist and a member of the New York State Archaeological Association.He...

praised the volume as "some of the best of the fantastic, bloody exploits of Conan the Cimmerian in a world that never was."